10,536 research outputs found
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The EV-TRACK knowledgebase is developed to cope with the need for transparency and rigour to increase reproducibility and facilitate standardization of extracellular vesicle (EV) research. The knowledgebase includes a checklist for authors and editors intended to improve the transparency of methodological aspects of EV experiments, allows queries and meta-analysis of EV experiments and keeps track of the current state of the art. Widespread implementation by the EV research community is key to its success
Immunological basis of differences in disease resistance in the chicken
Genetic resistance to diseases is a multigenic trait governed mainly by the immune system and its interactions with many physiologic and environmental factors. In the adaptive immunity, T cell and B cell responses, the specific recognition of antigens and interactions between antigen presenting cells, T cells and B cells are crucial. It occurs through a network of mediator proteins such as the molecules of the major histocompatibility complex (MHC), T cell receptors, immunoglobulins and secreted proteins such as the cytokines and antibodies. The diversity of these proteins that mainly is due to an intrinsic polymorphism of the genes causes phenotypic variation in disease resistance. The well-known linkage of MHC polymorphism and Marek's disease resistance difference represents a classic model revealing immunological factors in resistance differences and diversity of mediator molecules. The molecular bases in any resistance variation to infectious pathogens are vaguely understood. This paper presents a review of the major immune mediators involved in resistance and susceptibility to infectious diseases and their functional mechanisms in the chicken. The genetic interaction of disease resistance with production traits and the environment is mentioned
Stochastic Processes Crossing from Ballistic to Fractional Diffusion with Memory: Exact Results
We address the now classical problem of a diffusion process that crosses over
from a ballistic behavior at short times to a fractional diffusion (sub- or
super-diffusion) at longer times. Using the standard non-Markovian diffusion
equation we demonstrate how to choose the memory kernel to exactly respect the
two different asymptotics of the diffusion process. Having done so we solve for
the probability distribution function (pdf) as a continuous function which
evolves inside a ballistically expanding domain. This general solution agrees
for long times with the pdf obtained within the continuous random walk approach
but it is much superior to this solution at shorter times where the effect of
the ballistic regime is crucial
Metallopanstimulin as a marker for head and neck cancer
BACKGROUND: Metallopanstimulin (MPS-1) is a ribosomal protein that is found in elevated amounts in the sera of patients with head and neck squamous cell carcinoma (HNSCC). We used a test, denoted MPS-H, which detects MPS-1 and MPS-1-like proteins, to determine the relationship between MPS-H serum levels and clinical status of patients with, or at risk for, HNSCC. PATIENTS AND METHODS: A total of 125 patients were prospectively enrolled from a university head and neck oncology clinic. Participants included only newly diagnosed HNSCC patients. Two control groups, including 25 non-smokers and 64 smokers, were studied for comparison. A total of 821 serum samples collected over a twenty-four month period were analyzed by the MPS-H radioimmunoassay. RESULTS: HNSCC, non-smokers, and smokers had average MPS-H values of 41.5 ng/mL, 10.2 ng/mL, and 12.8 ng/mL, respectively (p = 0.0001). CONCLUSION: We conclude that MPS-1 and MPS-1-like proteins are elevated in patients with HNSCC, and that MPS-H appears to be a promising marker of presence of disease and response to treatment in HNSCC patients
Two-Frequency Jahn-Teller Systems in Circuit QED
We investigate the simulation of Jahn-Teller models with two non-degenerate
vibrational modes using a circuit QED architecture. Typical Jahn-Teller systems
are anisotropic and require at least a two-frequency description. The proposed
simulator consists of two superconducting lumped-element resonators interacting
with a common flux qubit in the ultrastrong coupling regime. We translate the
circuit QED model of the system to a two-frequency Jahn-Teller Hamiltonian and
calculate its energy eigenvalues and the emission spectrum of the cavities. It
is shown that the system can be systematically tuned to an effective single
mode Hamiltonian from the two-mode model by varying the coupling strength
between the resonators. The flexibility in manipulating the parameters of the
circuit QED simulator permits isolating the effective single frequency and pure
two-frequency effects in the spectral response of Jahn-Teller systems.Comment: 8 pages, 4 figures, figures revise
Biaxial nematic phases in fluids of hard board-like particles
We use density-functional theory, of the fundamental-measure type, to study
the relative stability of the biaxial nematic phase, with respect to
non-uniform phases such as smectic and columnar, in fluids made of hard
board-like particles with sizes . A
restricted-orientation (Zwanzig) approximation is adopted. Varying the ratio
while keeping , we
predict phase diagrams for various values of which include all the
uniform phases: isotropic, uniaxial rod- and plate-like nematics, and biaxial
nematic. In addition, spinodal instabilities of the uniform phases with respect
to fluctuations of the smectic, columnar and plastic-solid type, are obtained.
In agreement with recent experiments, we find that the biaxial nematic phase
begins to be stable for . Also, as predicted by previous
theories and simulations on biaxial hard particles, we obtain a region of
biaxility centred on which widens as
increases. For \kappa_2\agt 5 the region of the
packing-fraction vs. phase diagrams exhibits interesting topologies
which change qualitatively with . We have found that an increasing
biaxial shape anisotropy favours the formation of the biaxial nematic phase.
Our study is the first to apply FMT theory to biaxial particles and, therefore,
it goes beyond the second-order virial approximation. Our prediction that the
phase diagram must be asymmetric is a genuine result of the present approach,
which is not accounted for by previous studies based on second-order theories.Comment: Preprint format. 18 pages, 5 figure
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